A grandmother has been ordered to sell her home to pay a £113,000 legal bill after losing a boundary dispute with her neighbour over a fence. Jenny Field, 76, from Hamworthy, Poole, Dorset, must raise the funds within three months or her bungalow will be sold by court order.
The dispute began in June 2020 when neighbour Pauline Clark, 64, replaced a broken fence. Field claimed the new fence encroached onto her land by one foot and hired contractors to tear it down. Clark then launched civil proceedings for damage, theft, and trespass in February 2021.
Clark won the case in December 2022, with Field ordered to pay £14,000. However, Field challenged the ruling, leading to multiple court cases and spiralling legal costs of £113,266. A civil restraint order was imposed due to the excessive volume of correspondence, which District Judge Ross Fentem described as “plainly excessive and may be perceived as vexatious”.
At Bournemouth County Court, Judge Fentem ordered the sale of Field’s three-bedroom bungalow, which she bought for £270,000 in 2016 and is now valued at £600,000. Field admitted she will have to sell, saying: “I haven’t got that sort of money. I am selling it because I have to and I am fed up with living here but I will offer to pay her £1 per week.”
Clark’s representative, Anna Curtis, said an order for sale was the “last resort” and that there was enough equity for Field to pay the debts and still find somewhere nice to live. Judge Fentem concluded: “I have no confidence at all that the claimant will be paid what she is owed except by an order for sale. This matter needs resolution.”
